I’ve been wanting to switch from the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem for a while. I bought an iPhone, which I quite liked and wanted to buy an apple watch. I decided to go for the SE as I have no reason for more.
But now I’m refunding it since apparently it doesn’t support an on screen keyboard even though I paid extra for the larger 44mm. But I have to pay EVEN MORE for a Series 9 to get a SOFTWARE FEATURE.
Why?! It’s not like it costs Apple any extra to put a bunch of pixels on a screen. Not being able to reply to texts is a crucial feature for me on the apple watch.
And no, dictation doesn’t cut it. It’s awful in my language and creates unnecessary noise. Scribbling is painfully slow and makes you look like an idiot. And of course whipping out your iPhone to write defeats the whole purpose.
On my Galaxy Watch 5 Pro (which despite its Pro name cost me about as much as the SE) I was able to install Gboard and use swipe type which lets me write multi word sentences pretty quickly. Don’t tell me that the 3 trillion dollar company can’t figure it out.
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Hmm. That is strange. I don’t think of Apple as doing much artificial gating. This may be that (and I’m not opposed to charging for software), but it is notable that the Apple Watch keyboard does a lot of prediction. It works surprisingly well and clearly does a lot of guessing and prompting to deal with the fact that a finger is like 4 keys large. I don’t know much about the SE, but I wonder if they found the experience or be worse there. (If they’re going to give dictation it wouldn’t make a ton of sense not to give a keyboard if it were an option I’d think.)
Question: what language do you speak that dictation works poorly in? Just curious. I only recently tried it (dictation) and I was blown away by how well it works in English.
If it is that important to you, would you not research things before buying them?
Pretty reasonable to expect a keyboard to be there.
I don’t work for Apple, so can’t say if it’s just Apple gatekeeping features for higher-end watches or there is really a technical reason. However, I think you overthink too much about the keyboard feature. I’m using an S7 and I would only use the keyboard to do really short replies and will take out my phone for anything longer than a few words.
Well… you went from a pro model watch to a budget model watch. I’m fairly certain you answered your own question in the post.
That’s why you get the s7 my dude.
I bought the SE2. It doesn’t bother me the slightest it doesn’t have a keyboard. I’m not gonna write long essays to friends anyways. I just speak what I need to reply and it sends it. If I can’t speak because I’m in public I just grab my phone obviously… it’s not missing anything for me.
Don’t be so quick to return it! Do you really need to text?
Okay so the real reason is, according to Apple, the Series 7 which introduced the keyboard has more space for the keyboard.
If you ask me, the actual reason is there are not enough features to differentiate the S7 from the S6, so Apple kept that feature exclusive intentionally. The AW starting from S5 through S9 has been mostly the same. You get some new sensors in newer models, some slicker bezels starting from the series 7, but not enough features from my point of view. I am still okay with a series 6.
Because it’s a SE
On screen keyboard really isn’t as hype as your thinking it is, have the Ultra and I still find that trying to type on it to be a pain unless I’m sitting still and focus which at that point I’m just gonna pull out my phone.
Apple will say the screen is too small, really they want you to pay for more features.
That’s weird. I’m pretty sure my Watch 3 had it.
You know the drawing it’s not so bad after ya get used to it. I bought a keyboard but after I got used to the draw I hardly ever use it.
Holy shit just take out your phone.
What if you’re out and about abc your battery goes to 0%. What if …. That 1/2 the reason peope get these.
I cannot fathom the idea of actually using an on screen keyboard on a watch. If I’m going to type something, I will pull out my phone. I have an SE1 and the dictation works just fine. Also the predicted responses work just fine as well as the emojis. I did not know any watch had an on screen keyboard, and for the life of me, could not imagine myself ever using it. I am sorry that you have such an emotional response to this seemingly completely useless feature not being included. I hope that you can find a way to be happy with a phone and watch combination in the future.
I don’t use it much, but it actually, very surprisingly, works quite well. It does more prediction and gives you more options as you type. I think it does more inference regarding your fat fingers and what they could possible mean. I was actually impressed.
Still not something I do much, but impressive.
The series watches have bigger screens to fit the keyboard. It won’t fit properly on the SE/SE2
The 41/45 mm models have a larger screen. While the 44 mm could handle the on-screen keyboard, the 40 wouldn’t do so nearly as well and they’re not going to have it missing from just one model.
So you’re complaining about a software feature is directly tied to hardware considerations and justifiably absent.